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Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

latimes.com

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Re: Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

#21

Post by ubernostrum »

jessaustin wrote: post #6
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also worth noting the huge disparity between Bay Area voters (overwhelmingly FOR continuing the project) vs. LA voters (this is an LA Times article).

Is LA Times against it because LA residents are, or are LA residents against it because LA Times is?

People think of California as one of the bluest blue states, but it's very far from homogeneous. The LA metro area, for example, contains several affluent and strongly Republican communities, which means that if you poll educated/affluent/traditional-news-reading people in that area you're going to get results that lean more conservative than what people often expect (and Republicans/conservatives in the US are generally against public transit and public-works projects).

You can get the same thing in the Bay area if you poll in the right places. See Atherton's lawsuits to try to stop Caltrain electrification, for example.

Re: Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

#22

Post by gingernaut »

stcredzero wrote: post #15
jboles wrote: post #11

Killing it would be short-sighted. If it gets killed, there would probably never be the opportunity to build it ever again. California is flush with tech money, put some of it to good use.

I suspect that tech could do a better job at building it.

"Moving fast and breaking things" is not acceptable in infrastructure.

Re: Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

#23

Post by basementcat »

jessaustin wrote: post #8
AndrewBissell wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who said this would be a massive boondoggle and voted against the bond in the first place were right all along.

Every big public project is a massive boondoggle. Should we just stop doing things?

The Golden Gate Bridge was finished ahead of schedule and under budget.

Re: Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

#25

Post by gascan »

stcredzero wrote: post #15
jboles wrote: post #11

Killing it would be short-sighted. If it gets killed, there would probably never be the opportunity to build it ever again. California is flush with tech money, put some of it to good use.

I suspect that tech could do a better job at building it.

I can't wait for a public beta on a bullet train.

Re: Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

#26

Post by rayiner »

This is the upper middle class robbing poor people. The projected fare would be $86 per ticket, about triple the cost of driving for a family of four. The people who are going to pay that are upper middle class travelers and business travelers. Which would be fine if the project was paying for itself, but it won’t be. It’ll be state subsidies for high income professionals. That money could be doing so much good (schools, public transit for lower income people, etc.).

For example, the $100+ billion this will eventually cost could create a fund that would perpetually pay (with inflation increases) about $1,200 to every low-income K-12 student in the State.

Re: Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

#27

Post by Agustus »

jboles wrote: post #11

Killing it would be short-sighted. If it gets killed, there would probably never be the opportunity to build it ever again. California is flush with tech money, put some of it to good use.

Killing it would be far sighted. Technology is improving transportation methods, we have buses and planes that can do the same thing as this train at much cheaper rates and without tax dollars to construct or maintain.

Re: Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

#28

Post by hadrien01 »

jdavis703 wrote: post #24
consto wrote: post #14

This website is blocked in Europe.

Ask your representatives in parliament to consider implementing less internationally expansive laws or use a VPN.

Ask your newspapers in the U.S. to consider respecting user privacy.

Re: Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train

#29

Post by mikeash »

jessaustin wrote: post #8
AndrewBissell wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who said this would be a massive boondoggle and voted against the bond in the first place were right all along.

Every big public project is a massive boondoggle. Should we just stop doing things?

No, we should stop fucking up public projects. Nothing says we have to.
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